Commentaar van David Lafferty, Chief Market Strategist bij Natixis op de voordracht van Christine Largarde als voorzitter van de ECB

3 jul 2019

Onderstaand het commentaar van David Lafferty, Chief Market Strategist bij Natixis op de voordracht van Christine Largarde als voorzitter van de ECB.

Talking Points

• While Lagarde may implement small changes at the margin, we expect her to continue the ECB's super-accommodative ways.
• Lagarde's appointment was somewhat of surprise where few economists predicted her to take the helm of the ECB. This gives some indication of how complex the negotiations were for the new EC governing positions.
• Lagarde is much more of political animal - a policymaker - and less so a traditional economist. Some will make a big deal of this, but I doubt it matters much. With inflation low, growth sluggish, and structural reform hard to find, she won't have to create a new monetary policy playbook. She can pretty much play off of Draghi's. At this point , her ability to navigate European politics is probably worth more than a PhD in economics.
• Lagarde will be charged with selling ECB policy, to both Eurozone countries and global investors, as much as setting it.
• Her background and negotiating skills honed a the IMF will certainly come into play as she argues for increased fiscal space and structural reform across the continent, in an environment where her monetary tools have lost much of their efficacy.